American Airlines

I met with the CEO of AA and was instrumental in AA flying into Gunnison, CO I want to put AA in my screenplay Written in America. United wants to be the airline in my screenpolay. Fisher Price asked me to send pages that I think will enhance their toys. Since AA flew me to Dallas and showed me Sabre I love AA. Please call me if interested. Kristin Cannon 970/456-9073

This is by far the worst experience I have ever had with an Airline. Their customer service and handling of phone service is by far the worst in the industry. Fly SOUTHWEST…FLY DELTA…FLY ANYBODY ELSE! WANT TO HAVE A CORONARY? SEE YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE SHIFT TO UNMANAGEABLE LEVELS WHILE YOU wait…wait…wait…DID I SAY WAIT!!! AWFUL………

We flew AA from O’Hare to Costa Rica March 15th to March 26. My husband is paralyzed and in a W/C. I must say your people, all of them were the nicest, friendliest people ever. We had NO problems having him in an aisle chair and his own W/C was always waiting for him wherever we got off. It made the whole trip a complete pleasure. Our flight from Miami back to O’Hare, we had to sit for almost 2 hours before taking off for O’Hare and everybody was quiet and pleasant, we had a young gentleman steward who was a real gentleman. We thank you for a wonderful trip and all your wonderful employees on those flights!!
Sharon and Roger Oelschlaeger/Van Dera

thank you The experience withAmerican has been horrific. This is helpful Hope it works

My husband booked a flight with American airlines 5/19/11. we live in Texas, His dad lives in Colorado, We got a call that his dad was dying early this morning, paid for the ticket and he made it to the airport before the plane took off, after taking his boots, belt ect off and was clear to go he got to the gate and they said he was to late, The plane just sitting there and he could have walked thru but the lady said no. What a shame that American airlines will be the reason he didn’t get to see his dad before he died. Where is your compasion? NEVER again will fly American Airlines. His flight # was 3334 at 9:45 His name is Ivan O Stephens and he had to wait for the next flight @300:pm. In an emergecy you would think you could get on the flight he was booked for and paid for. Shame on American Airlines and the person standing there and made a wrong call by not letting him load the plane. Something needs to change, she knew his situation she had no compassion or didn’t even try to help him. DO NOT FLY AMERICAN AIRLINE.  

  5/29/2011 
Good afternoon,
 
    I am writing this letter to inform you of my horrific experience with your airline. Unfortunately, you probably receive these types of emails on a regular basis, but I don’t feel you can address the issues without customers pointing out where you can improve. I will never fly with you again (unless it’s an emergency and I have no other option), however I hope you use this information to improve your customer service for future clients.
    My original flight was flight 541 from Fort Lauderdale to Dallas on May 20th, 2011. The flight was scheduled to leave at 6:05 p.m. I arrived at the airport more than 2 hours prior to the flight to assure plenty of time for check in and security clearance. I attempted to obtain my boarding pass by using the self check-in machine, which took much longer than it should due to the machines malfunction. It was not able to read my passport or my ID. The touch screen was not allowing me (or the other passengers that were trying to help me) to make certain selections in order to speed up the process. Eventually, I was able to print out my boarding pass just to find out my plane had been delayed until 7:10 p.m. This flight was one of 2 I had to catch to get to my destination and the delay was supposed to make me miss my second flight. One of the other passengers told me to get in line to speak to one of your representatives and inform them of my dilemma.
     I went to the line right next to the check in machine that the other passenger pointed to, unaware that it was the “first class passenger line.” There weren’t any people in any other lines, so I didn’t realize there was a difference. You had 2 women working the ticket line, and both had people at their counters, so I waited. 2 other passengers walked up to the other line while I was waiting. When the first representative was done with her customer she called the guy in the front of the other line up to her. I thought that was the first class line due to her attention to him (even though he arrived after me), so I waited longer. When the second woman was done she looked at me, and in the nastiest tone said “you’re a first class passenger?” Had I been, I’m sure I would have been extremely insulted. I told her I wasn’t, but I was here before the other 2 people, so did I have to switch lines or could I come up to her. She then proceeded to ask the woman in the other line if I was there before her. Once the woman confirmed I was, and your representative made me look like a complete ass to all the other passengers in the airport, she told me “fine, come up here” and then asked “so, what’s your problem?”
     At this point I was mortified, but being that I had to be in Little Rock that night, I wanted to try to resolve my problem. I told her I was scheduled to leave at 6:05 on flight 541, but my boarding pass says now the flight is leaving at 7:10. Her response was “yeah, it’s delayed.” I explained I was catching another flight in Dallas that was scheduled to leave 10 minutes prior to my now-delayed-flights arrival. I asked her “what is going to happen?” Her response was “you’re going to miss your flight!” I asked her if I could catch a different flight and she responded “well, it’s not like I can put you on another airline, who do you think I am?!” So, in tears, I asked “so, there is nothing I can do?” and she told me to hold on, she is busy trying to help me. I waited a couple of minutes while she searched her computer. She then informed me she can change my ticket to a 6:10 flight to Dallas if I wanted to fly out of West Palm Beach. She said I would have to “catch the shuttle down stairs RIGHT NOW for $35.” She then asked “Is it worth $35 to catch your flight?!” Dumbfounded by her tone, I told her I would try to catch the 6:10 flight from WPB. She said she was printing my boarding pass so I didn’t have to go to the counter when I got there, but I need to go NOW! She handed me a bunch stuff in an envelope and told me to go down stairs quickly and get on the shuttle. I have NEVER had someone be so condescending or demeaning for no reason. The woman who told me to get in line even made the comment as I was walking to the shuttle “obviously, she hates her job!”   
     I ran down stairs to catch the shuttle. I approached the guy at the podium and explained I had to catch the shuttle to WPB. He asked when my plane was supposed to leave, and I told him 6:10. He said I would never get there in time, it was 4:30 and the shuttle makes several stops along the way. He told me it was going to cost me $100 dollars plus a 20% tip to get there, and even then he wasn’t sure if I’d make the flight. I told him your representative told me it was $35, and he responded “well, she doesn’t run my shuttle, I do. And obviously she lied to you!” Of course, I paid the $120, because I felt I had no other choice if I wanted to make my flight. I cried all the way to the WPB airport. As we were approaching the airport the driver asked me if I had the boarding pass and I told him she printed it for me. He told me to double check, so I didn’t have to look for it after he dropped me off. As I pulled it out, I examined the information to verify I had a seat and noticed it said my boarding time was 6:40! I asked the driver (not like he would know) why the boarding pass would say 6:40 if the plane was leaving at 6:10? He said “because your plane isn’t leaving at 6:10.” So, now I’d paid $120 and stressed myself out to leave at the same time I would have left if I had stayed at Fort Lauderdale. Now, I know you can’t control weather, but she intentionally sent me to another airport and cost me a lot of money to be in the same situation I was in. Even the personnel at your airline acknowledged she knew the plane was delayed, IT SAID IT ON THE BOARDING PASS SHE PRINTED!
     I went inside WPB airport and spoke with another one of your representatives. I updated him on my situation and verified my plane was delayed until 7:10. He said it was, and he was going to see if he could get me on a plane with another airline. I asked him how he could do that, and he said “we all can do that, if there’s an available seat on Delta or Continental, I can put you on with them.” Which is EXACTLY what the other woman said she COULDN’T do!  That was just the beginning of my experience with the rude, disrespectful, obviously unhappy people you have working for you. The gentleman I dealt with should get an award for best staff member of ALL American Airlines personnel. He was the only nice person I dealt with on all 4 of the planes I took. Your airline attendants are rude and impatient, and their behavior wasn’t even directed toward me (I got the luxury of being an observer!).  I still have the boarding pass she gave me and the receipt for the shuttle, if you feel the need to verify my experience. With all the security measures the airport takes due to possible terrorist activity, I’m sure there is video of everything too. As a teacher, if I were to treat you or your child the way I was treated, I wouldn’t have a job at the end of the day! I feel for all of your future passengers. I really hope you can improve. Please email me so I know someone in your company cares enough to read customers letters.
 
Thank you for your time,

I have used the email address’s but have not gotten a response back as of yet. I emailed customer service about the rude, insulting and beyond poor service(on top of lost baggage). I did get a response back with a $100 travel voucher, it was like salt on a wound. Before when travel with Southwest My daughter bagged was delayed only a few hours, they gave me a $50 voucher on a flight I only paid $50 for.
Yet on the American Airlines, $1800 international tickets and all the inconviences they sent me a $100 travel voucher!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Baggage Allowance
- While checking in at UIO (Quito),
the agent that checked us in was incompetent
and unprofessional, albeit polite.  He first wanted to check our
luggage to LIM or LAX rather than ABQ.  Then he insisted that the luggage
allowance for two of us was only 46 KGs rather than twice that much per LAN
policy that was confirmed by both AA and LAN.  He wanted to charge excess
baggage fee.  None of our friends who checked in through other counters had any
issues.  We did not want to pay “so called excess baggage fee” and ended up
taking out stuff from checked.  Then he decided only 3 bags can be checked and
not 4th as was allowed and we had previously done from the US.  So,
we ended up keeping one as carry on.  To make this even worse he insisted that
that piece needed to weigh less than 8 KGs, further forcing us to take stuff out
and carry it in our hand.  It was truly
embarrassing and unprofessional.  We felt harassed and embarrassed doing all
this in public and it took over an hour.  Our repeated request to the agent to
check with other agents who right there had checked our other friends went
unheeded.  We feel that AA/LAN should revise their training for agents and also
compensate us for this poor experience.

From: Travelinm01@aol.com
To: GerardJArpey@aa.com
Sent: 8/5/2011 4:08:16 P.M. Central Daylight Time
Subj: Help me Please
 
We are three women trying to fill a life dream we are fixed income and tried to get a cheap flight to Barcelona Spain to take the Carnival Magic back to Galveston we found cheap tickets from Wholesaletraveler.com at $445. when getting the tickets the young man that does not work for them any more spelt our names wrong I have been trying since day one to get it fixed and all we do is get a bad time now they tell us American will not honor our tickets because the names are wrong I am 74 years old have flown American many times and have never been treated so rude from these ticket agents and wholesale traveler It is making me sick because if I have to pay there $500 more I can not afford to go I just got a little saved to have spending money really need some help hope that this gets to you  With all the money that American makes I can not believe that you charge to correct a name . Thank you for your timePatricia C Halversonflight Number Enuikg Leaving  October 26 2011E mail travelinm01@aol.com

I can find no other way than to thank American Airline Roxanne Newman who just called and fixed things so we can have a great vacation thank you and  its great to see that they do respond with the up most  courtesy Keep flying American and thank you

Well if miami is bad imagine st. thomas they suck ass!!!

Thursday, October 6, 2011, I went to the Seattle Airport @9:30 pm for my 10:50 flight to Chicago with a connecting flight to Pittsburgh. The 10:50 flight was moved to 11:40 and did not take off until 12:30 AM. Needless to say I missed my connecting flight, but only by 4 minutes (they were still loading luggage but would not let me on the plane! The agent was more than helpful to rebook my flight at 9:10pm! I’m sitting in the Chicago airport at this moment waiting a standby, but that doesn’t look hopeful. At this point I’m looking at 24 hours of travel time to get from Seattle to Pittsburgh which is only a 5 hour flight!!!! This is CRAZY
 and I will NEVER, NEVER, NEVER FLY AMERICAN AIRLINES AGAIN!!!!! You would think they would at least buyme a cup of coffee!

They damaged my expensive guitar on the flight back from Maui to SF.  First they charge me $240 to check my baggage.  And then they say I can’t make a baggage claim because it was past the 24 hours.  This does not change the fact that they broke my guitar.

   Just sent out to AA                                                                                                                                                         Dec. 31st, 2011
 
To whom it may concern,
 
Please forward to:
Thomas W. Horton
Chairman & CEO / American Airlines
 
Craig S Kreeger
Senior Vice President – Customer Experience  /  American Airlines
 
Good evening Sirs,
     I would like to bring to light an experience my wife, 9 year old son and I had on a flight today.  It all started out at the ticketing counter.  We were traveling with a small dog, who was in a FAA approved carrier or Sherpa bag.  While we were in line at the counter that is reserved for customers traveling with pets and for unattended children, we witnessed a customer come from the regular lines and tie up one of the two agents designated for our line.  Rather than send him back to the front of the other line, they attempted to help him as he must have had several issues with ticketing unbeknownst to the rest of us in line.  There was a 12 year old girl ahead of us that literally missed her flight because of this and had to wait another two hours for the next.  We eventually got our tickets, paid for the dog and got through security.  Our flight was 2416 from LAX to Dallas Ft Worth.  Our dog is a Pug and, due to the nature of this particular breed, has sinus issues.  To remedy this, my wife uses some peanut butter on her finger for the dog to lick upon take-off and landing.  One of the stewards, Richard Frandsen asked her to push the bag further under the seat and push the dogs nose back in.  I understand this is an FAA rule, but we have NEVER encountered such misunderstanding of a passengers needs.  The dog was tethered inside the bag and could not get out.  As the flight went on, Mr. Frandsen chose to come and “stand” over us and just, for a lack of better words, grunt at us.  Upon getting the cabin ready for landing, Mr. Frandsen came to us and said “please, please, please zip up the bag…at least until we land”.  He then went and buckled into his seat.  At this point, my wife zipped up the bag and we landed.  As we were taxiing to the terminal, my wife let the dogs nose out again to give her peanut butter to be sure that her ears equalized so sickness did not ensue.  Please feel free to check our flight records with American Airlines for the past four years as we have flown numerous times with this dog and there has NEVER been an issue.  As a matter of fact, most people don’t even realize that we have a dog and upon deplaning say that they were amazed that we had a dog as they couldn’t tell.  To continue on, as we were exiting the plane we wanted to know Mr. Frandsen’s name as during the flight he was not wearing any identification as the other stewardesses were.  By the way, no other stewardess said anything to us about the dog.  We stopped to ask him his name and I guess this is where it all REALLY begins.  Mr. Frandsen decided to go somewhat berserk and say he was going to lodge a formal complaint to the FAA against us, frantically wrote down his name along with his employee number 335770, I’m guessing, on a torn up piece of paper and pretty much throw it at us.  Some words were exchanged between he and my wife and my wife flat out told him to do whatever he wished and gave a gesture of “whatever” (exhale of breath with the lips fluttering).  She then did say that with today’s economy and hard times and to treat customers in such a manner that he should be the first to lose his job.  Yes, I know she may have been out of line for this statement, but there was no profanity involved or what Mr. Frandsen then accused her of.  Due to her “gesture” he construed that as “spitting” and I told him there was no such occurrence as I was standing between them both and if that were the case, would’ve been “spit” on as well.  We were in seats 29C, E and G and this all took place at the beverage station just ahead of these seats.  He promptly tried to push past me.  Mind you, my wife was in front carrying the dog, then our 9 year old son and myself.  As we approached the aircraft door, Mr. Frandsen told the other steward that we needed to be stopped and yelled to him that my wife had “spit” on him.  I told the steward that nothing of the sort happened and he informed me that he believed Mr. Frandsen over me.  We then exited the plane and proceeded to our next gate which was B17 for flight number 2716 on American Eagle from Dallas to Evansville, IN.  We spoke with the gate agent there, Andy Forh, who informed us that someone had called about the incident, but he said he did not see an issue and believed something had been escalated far beyond where it needed to be and he made the call to let us board the flight.  As we were patiently waiting for boarding, and trying to enjoy some lunch and calm down after it all, the Dallas Airport Police show up.  With our carry-ons, dog and 9 year old in tow we went to a somewhat secluded area to speak with them.  To our amazement they informed us that Mr. Frandsen was filing an assault charge against my wife for spitting and that they were there to gather our information.  We complied and let them know what had happened in our words and that there was no “spitting” on Mr. Frandsen.  We then had to wait until the investigating officer  Bowen at terminal D called the officers that were speaking with us to get the information.  They conversed and I heard the word “ridiculous” come from one of the officers lending me to believe that there was one heck of a fabricated story going on with the other party on the phone.  Needless to say, the officers left and let us on our way so we went back to the waiting area at B17 where we were spoke with by Cindy Sumner who is the American Eagle passenger assistance supervisor.  She got our story and saw no threat to having us on the flight as well and told us we could board.  By this time, everyone at this gate seemed to have some sort of story about an “alleged” incident.  Upon boarding the plane, we thanked Andy Forh and conversed with the stewardess, Theresa, about the issue.  She took the same stand, as per policy, and we do understand.  The pilot just told her to let us on the plane as he obviously didn’t see an issue with us.  During the flight, Theresa came to us and spoke with us for quite some time on the issue.  She continually said she was sorry for the incident and that it should not have ever happened in the way it did.  We said we understood, but she didn’t have to say sorry for someone else’s actions.  She offered us a couple of “drinks” but we declined as we do not drink those type of beverages.  No issues on flight 2716 at all.  We wished everyone a “Happy New Year” and went on our way.  At the baggage carousel, a few of the passengers came up to us to let us know what confusion they had felt at the gate in Dallas and wondered what the heck had happened as we were portrayed as a serious problem as everyone with AA was talking about us.  They couldn’t believe that it all started with a little dog.  Unbelievable and pathetic was the conveyance by others, including some AA employees we spoke with on the way.
     Needless to say, we now have to incur an expense of time, money or what have you to deal with a criminal charge for something that did not happen.  “Spit” did not happen, so an assault charge is not warranted.  The DA that looks at this case will probably not take it any further as the definition of assault is an intent to cause harm.  There was no such intent against your employees or airline.  It seems as though we may be in need to seek legal counsel in the “assault” charge, we will listen to all advice laid out to us in this matter.  I know this was a lengthy and winded letter and I thank-you for reading it in its entirety.  Your response is not expected, but highly respected in this matter of importance to us.
 
Thank-you again,
Happy New Year
 
Happy New Year

Very helpful, thanks to your time to share this information

After we flight AA airline, all of my family had bad diarrhea for 4 days. The food was contaminated. We will never flight AA again.

Letter to AA 5/5/2012:

Dear sir or madam,

I am extremely unhappy with your airline. I was originally scheduled to fly on flight 672 from STT to DEN via MIA on 05/05/2012. My locator number is DPHRCZ.

I had paid $150 to change my departure date because my wife suffered a medical emergency and had been admitted to the hospital. I needed to return home ASAP – this was a matter of extreme urgency.

I arrived at the airport in STT and received an email notification that the flight was on time.

I proceeded through security and was unhappy to discover at the gate that the flight from STT to MIA was actually an hour and a half late.

The gate agent was calling specific passengers to inform them to rebook their travel arrangements. Because I was continuing on to DEN on the same flight number 672 from MIA, I was told that this would not be an issue.

Imagine my distress when upon arriving late in MIA I was informed that flight number 672 from MIA to DEN had already left. I was told I would have to catch a flight the following day.

Had I been informed BEFORE boarding in STT that I would be stuck in MIA overnight, I would have chosen to leave STT the following day rather than be stuck in a strange city where I know nobody.

I waited at the luggage claim for 45 minutes to try to reclaim my luggage so that I could at least get a change of clothes for the night, but there were so many people that I became frustrated and went on to the hotel.

I spoke to Lisa Frost, in your North Carolina supervisory office, but received no satisfaction.

I want my $150 back. I do NOT want a voucher for future travel because (1) I paid for a service I did not receive, IE, return service to DEN from STT on 5/5/2012, and (2) I never intend to fly your airline ever again, so such a voucher is worthless to me. I want a REFUND.

I have over 330,000 lifetime miles on AA but have not flown recently because the last few experiences have been so unpleasant and AA rarely has lower prices or newer aircraft than other alternatives. This recent experience just confirms my suspicions that your airline provides poor, indifferent service.

If you do not refund my $150 I will dispute the charge with my credit card, stating that i did not receive what I paid for, IE, return service to DEN from STT on 5/5/2012.

I will also post this complaint on expedia.com, consumerist.org, twitter, Facebook and as many social media outlets as I can.

Tonight my wife is home alone from the hospital and I was not able to make alternative arrangements because your airline is incapable of communicating with your customers in a reasonable and timely manner. This is the kind of incident that gives US air travel such a bad name these days.

Please respond SOON and advise if / how you intend to address this matter.

Bryan Brodie

Thank you, your advice really helped me when writing a letter to the airlines.  I received a very friendly call and was helped within just one week of mailing my letter!